Album Review

George Russell has been a highly original arranger-composer in creative music for nearly 60 years, writing and performing music that is in its own world, with its own rules, logic, and genius. Although he has made some great recordings along the way, there have also been stretches when he was not that prolifically documented. The 80th Birthday Concert, a two-CD set, stands as one of his finest recordings and sums up much of his career. Conducting his 15-piece Living Time Orchestra, Russell performs new and innovative versions of "Electronic Sonata for Souls Loved by Nature" and the multi-part "African Game," which is over 40 minutes long and ends quite wildly. In addition the orchestra performs the briefer "Listen to the Silence," "It's About Time," and a reworking of the Miles Davis trumpet solo from "So What." While many soloists are heard from (most notably trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg, tenor saxophonist Andy Sheppard, and trombonist Dave Bargeron), it is the sound of the passionate ensembles, the very original writing, and the spirit of the musicians and the ageless Russell that makes this a highly recommended set.

Biography

Born: 23 June 1923 in Cincinnati, OH

Genre: Jazz

Years Active: '40s, '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s, '00s

While George Russell was very active as a free-thinking composer, arranger, and bandleader, his biggest effect upon jazz was in the quieter role of theorist. His great contribution, apparently the first by a jazz musician to general music theory, was a book with the intimidating title The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization, where he concocted a concept of playing jazz based on scales rather than chord changes. Published in 1953, Russell's theories directly paved the way for the modal...